


Taking Responsibility

by Cassplay



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Mokuba being a bro, Seto being a big bro, Working Late, anxiousness, post legendary heroes, pre battle city
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-03 00:31:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21170450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cassplay/pseuds/Cassplay
Summary: Ever since the Virtual world, Mokuba's been trying to find the right time to apologise for something; when Seto seems intent on working on his new duel disk well into the night, Mokuba has to do something to get him to go to sleep.





	Taking Responsibility

**Author's Note:**

> For the Pod of Greed episode 69 fanfic competition.
> 
> Winner of the awards for:  
Most Targeted Host Award  
And  
Braver Than Any US Marine Award for Posting

Mokuba toyed with the card locket around his neck. Clipping it and unclipping it over and over again. It was a bad habit, he knew, and would probably break the cheap metal someday. He forced himself to let it go and stuck his hands in his pockets.

Seto had been in his office for hours now. Sorting out the new board of directors for Kaiba Corp was no mean feat, especially after the hullabaloo from the attempted buyout by industrial illusions. The ‘unexplained’ absence of the previous board probably didn’t help attract people to the positions either.

Mokuba breathed out a sigh of relief yet again at Seto and Yugi’s efforts in the final duel against the Big 5 in the virtual world. The Five-Headed Dragon had been so strong, and it was only the combined strength of Yugi’s Black Luster Soldier and Seto’s Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon that had been enough to slash and burn that hydra.

But that brought them back to the now. Seto had said that he would be done by eight. It was now ten.

Mokuba shifted in his chair outside Seto’s office. Usually he would just walk in, but he held himself back today. He reached down and pulled a folder out of his bag beside the chair.

Flipping it open, Mokuba’s eyes widened. He had seen the readings before, many times in fact; but he just couldn’t believe them. Seto might claim that ‘Egyptian God Card’ was just a buzz word meant to show how powerful Obelisk the Tormentor was, but the readings were just off the charts. The duel computer Seto had used Obelisk against the previous day was offline, and it seemed like it would be a write-off. What sort of duel monsters’ card could do that?

Mokuba ran a pencil down the equations he had done, calculated from the readings, and checked them yet again.

The answer remained the same, but Mokuba was distracted. His stomach growled. Seto must be hungry by now too. They had gotten used to going hungry before they were adopted, but for Mokuba this seemed worse somehow. He could walk into Seto’s office any time he wanted and drag him out to a restaurant. But he hadn’t.

Mokuba closed the folder and slipped it back in his bag. There was no use trying to distract himself, he needed to confront what happened with the virtual world. Seto had vanished into the simulation, he hadn’t responded in days, and the Big 5 were closing in. So Mokuba had gone to the best duelists he knew of, apart from Seto, of course. Yugi and Friends had followed him into the virtual world for someone that they had every reason to despise.

Seto had been horrible to them in Duellist Kingdom, and before that. Of course, Mokuba had had his share of megalomania from the sudden fortune they had access to. He would never know what he had been thinking when he decided to wear that cape.

There was no use, Mokuba had to talk to Seto about it. He stood up, grabbing his bag and approached Seto’s office door. He took a breath and raised a hand to knock.

The sound reverberated around the empty corridor.

“Who is it?” Seto’s voice came from inside the room.

Still unsure, Mokuba pushed the door open a bit, enough to fit his head through. Seto was at his computer, typing.

“Uh, Seto? It’s me.” He said nervously.

“Mokuba?” Seto looked up in confusion. “What are you doing here still?”

“I was waiting for you, big brother.” Mokuba said.

“Oh, well, you can go on without me.”

“You said you were going to finish up at eight.”

“I’m nearly finished, I just need to work out the bugs.” Seto said, gesturing at the mass of circuitry beside him. “With these changes there won’t be any need for a retractable card unit.”

“Oh, the duel disk mark 2.” Mokuba realised.

“With these there will be no need for those horrendous Industrial Illusions arenas.” Seto said, smirking. “And to think, it was Pegasus himself that set me on the path to creating them to counter that eye of his.”

“Yes, big brother.” Mokuba said, trying not to let a prickle of annoyance slip through in his voice for being told some permutation of this fact for what must be the hundredth time. He sighed. “But you should come home and rest, have some dinner.”

“What time is it?” Seto glanced at the time in the corner of his monitor screen. “It’s only ten, I’ll be finished soon.”

“You said you’d be finished at eight.” Mokuba said, pushing slightly in his tone.

“I know, Mokuba.” Seto said. “But I just need to get this done.”

Mokuba didn’t respond. He knew what Seto was like when he got like this. His brother may be dedicated, but more often than not that usually translated to stubbornness. Only a real shock would snap him out of this. If it was to ensure that Seto got to bed at least a semi-reasonable hour, he could say what he had been so nervous about since the virtual world.

“I’m sorry I got Yugi to come rescue you from the virtual world.” Mokuba said. He had known, when his brother went missing, that the thing he would hate most would be Yugi, his arch-rival, showing up to rescue him.

“Mokuba?” Seto said, almost stunned. He was looking past the computer at Mokuba now, the first time he had done since Mokuba entered the room.

“I knew you would hate if he were the one to rescue you, but I was so worried, big bro!” Mokuba said, chin quivering. “It was horrible, you were gone, and the Big 5 were trying to seize company assets. Leichter was already drawing up plans to re-open the weapon plants.”

“Mokuba.” Seto stood, and spoke as he rounded the desk. “You’re absolutely correct that I despise Yugi and his lackeys. Being rescued by them was possibly the worst day of my life.”

‘Well, maybe let’s not go that far, Seto.’ Mokuba thought.

Seto approached Mokuba and crouched down in front of him.

“But even if I hated every moment of it, it was absolutely the right thing to do.” Seto said, looking very serious.

“Wait, what?”

“I’m saying that you made the right call, Mokuba.” He said. “A call I don’t think I could have made.” Mokuba blinked, taken aback.

“So, you’re not angry?” Mokuba asked tentatively.

“If I’m angry at anyone for the virtual world incident, I’m angry at myself.” Seto said, and he set a hand on Mokuba’s shoulder. “Mokuba; I trust your judgement.”

“Seto…” Mokuba said, trailing off at a loss for words.

“Which is why you’re the only one I trust to run the tournament I’m putting together.” He said.

“A tournament?” Mokuba asked. “But you only just got back to running Kaiba Corp, surely you should take some time to rest?”

“Resting is for the likes of that dog Wheeler.” Seto said, and continued. “On paper it’s a tournament to advertise the new duel disks, but with an ante rule I can use it to gather Obelisk’s comrades.”

“You’re doing all that for some cards?” Mokuba said, kinda stunned; but also, that did sound exactly like his brother.

“You’ve seen the readings from Obelisk, imagine what I could do with three of these ‘Egyptian God cards’ in my deck.” Seto said, standing up. “Which is why you have to run it. I need to make sure that I win the Gods fair and square, otherwise Yugi will get all uppity about it.”

“Are you sure about this? Me, running a tournament?”

“Look around you, Mokuba; there is no one else at Kaiba Corp that could run it, and I would trust no one to run it besides you.”

“You really mean that, don’t you, Seto?” Mokuba asked.

“Of course, I mean It, Mokuba.” Seto said. “You’re the person I trust most of all in the world.”

“Big Brother!” Mokuba shouted, hugging his brother around the middle. Seto’s hand came to rest on his shoulder again.

Mokuba felt Seto turn in place to look at the abandoned electronics on his desk.

“Let’s go home.” Seto said.

“Right.” Mokuba let go. Seto started to walk out of his office, and Mokuba followed closely behind him.

Seto would never admit it, but Mokuba swore he head his stomach growl too.

“Could we get yakisoba on the way home, big bro?” he asked.

“Sure thing, Mokie.”


End file.
